Local Voices, North Zone, Mar. 09

When will public employees realize that they serve at the taxpayers pleasure?

When will public employees realize that the taxpayers can no longer afford their extravagant salaries, vacation/holiday time and pensions compounded by full pensions at early retirement?

When will the public employees realize that they should not be exempt from the economic crunch? It is long past time.

When did it become appropriate for teachers to lie about their absence from the classroom? Passing out sick slips at a public rally is not teaching our children good moral values but deception and deceit.

Why did this attempt to balance a budget as promised in Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's campaign surprise the public workers? A greater portion of the populace voted him into office. They are mad and are not going to take it anymore.

Why have public employees not been weaned into the Social Security system to level the playing field? That should be the very first order of business from Barack Obama on down through all public employee ranks.

Why do our elected representatives still have a health plan that all of us can only dream about but for which we have to pay? They passed "wonderful" Obamacare, but they certainly won't be subjected to it.

Why do our elected representatives get a pension when having served only one term? They should pay into Social Security just like the rest of us and start their own 401(k) plan.

How is Illinois going to pay these extravagant pensions when the pension fund needs billions? I don't even want to think about what my portion, as a taxpayer, would come to. Shame on the negotiators for agreeing to these outrageous unfunded demands to keep the public employees from striking. The time is long past for public employees to feel the pain that we, in the private sector, have felt and are still feeling. We all know that it going to get worse before it gets better.

May many states, including Illinois, follow Walker's example.

— Nancy Hershberger, Arlington Heights

Ignored duty

Let me see if I understand the Democrats of Wisconsin. Past administrations with Democratic majorities overspent the finances of Wisconsin over a series of years. The taxpayers, realizing this, legitimately voted out the majority Democrats and freely elected a group of people, primarily Republicans, who vowed to address these issues.

The remaining Democrats then ran away from their jobs in the state legislature, refusing to deal with the problems their party predecessors created.

Amazing.

They should be summarily fired for dereliction of duty.

— Randall Ray, Gurnee

Union protection

In a recent "What others are saying" item (Editorial, Feb. 24), a quote by Russ Roberts was beyond offensive. He suggested that union workers should "get educated" and "get a skill," as if union members, teachers in the case of my union, don't have an education or skills. But Roberts' most specious comment was, "You don't need a union to protect you from your employer."

In the early '80s, as a school social worker, I became aware that students were being molested by a high-placed school administrator. When I brought this to the attention of Central Office administrators, the allegations were not only ignored, but my personal and professional reputation was impugned by the administration. A union lawyer was obtained for me, who guided me through the process needed to take these allegations to the state's attorney's office. The administrator was eventually arrested, charged, found guilty and imprisoned. As a result of this situation, Illinois now has a law protecting schoolchildren.

The union paid for all of my legal fees. Had there been no teachers union to protect and support me, I not only would have been without a job, with my professional and personal reputation damaged, but the children of the Chicago Public Schools would have had no protection from this individual.

— Marsha Niazmand, Evanston

State's crisis

Let's identify a few points about pensions. The pensions of teachers in Illinois are contributory. The teachers, school districts and the state each contribute more than 9 percent of a teacher's salary for the pension. Two-thirds do not come from the state. The other two parties have faithfully made their contributions.

Now when the state is trouble, the media and the pols in Springfield want to put the solution on the back of teachers and other state workers. So the people who have been negligent in putting in their share want to go back on the deal they set up years ago.

When were the teachers and other employees able to control the poor administration of the state's finances? Why didn't the bean counters in Springfield realize that the state government's lack of contributions for years would not cause a crisis?